a r t i s t : Sans Arc
t i t l e : When eye meets eye
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : The Gaia Project
c a t : TGP013
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Indie
r l s. d a t e : Apr/2007
t r a c k s : 14
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 100,0 MB
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If I compared the two previous albums of Sans Arc to artists
like Slowdive, Sigur Ros, Cocteau Twins, Windy and Carl,
Worrytrain or Worlds End Girlfriend, for the ethereal coldness
and atmospheric shoegaze dimensions, when eyes meets eyes is a
different story. Something completely changed in the way Craig
Christo writes and records songs. Its not dramatically
different, but with a few subtle changes in his sound, he
reached a powerful and amazing alchemy. We are now somewhere
between Chuzzlewit and Appleseed Cast, not too far from
Khonnor or The London Apartments.
The ingredients are quite usual and generic: beats, programmed
and looped drums, typical shoegaze processed guitars, intimate
folk guitar, layers of sound, and melancholic, shy, adolescent
vocals. But now the coldness is gone and has been replaced by
bright, warm ambiences and dynamic, addictive melodies.
Honestly there is nothing absolutely new or original in the
way Sans Arc creates his songscapes but the result is
systematically extremely efficient and truly convincing.
Listening to Sans Arc is like being plunged into a high level
oxygen environment, with euphoric sensations, wonderful
landscapes, heavenly light, intense happiness and endlessly
moving feelings. The closest comparison would be a solo
version of Appleseed Cast circa Low level Owl or an intimate
lo-fi version of Slowdive circa Souvlaki.
When eyes meets eyes is 73 minutes long but from begin to end
there is no real weak points, the first two thirds of the
album are simply breathtaking, one hit after another, while on
the last third, Craig explores a more ambient oriented
approach that gives us the opportunity to land up peacefully.
An instrumental, Medecine Gun introduces the album perfectly
and then we are lost into a rarely seen non-stop linking of
eight equally successful gems: Captain, you will be the end of
us all, There is no way for us to win this time, Blue Panic,
Run with me into the fire, The grey morning, Mountaintops, Oh
Juliette! Tonight your name is poison (my favorite one!) and
The falling sky.
After such an implacable demonstration, the last five
atmospheric and more pensive songs have to be taken as an
extra, where Craig Christo explores more ambient areas like on
the experimental side of Low Level Owl and not too far from
some direction of the last Slowdive album Pygmalion.
On this third album, Sans Arc has finally developed all the
promises of Irradiate and Ghostlike, with the impressive
achievement of a majestic shoegaze album, without any doubt,
enthusiastically and thumbs up, already one of my favorite
2007 albums.
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01-medicine gun [04:09]
02-captain you will be the end of us all [05:54]
03-there is no way for us to win this time [04:39]
04-blue panic [04:42]
05-run with me into the fire [05:26]
06-the grey morning [05:27]
07-mountaintops [05:04]
08-oh juliette tonight your name is poison [05:17]
09-the falling sky [05:31]
10-you had your chance [06:02]
11-i gave you all that you have [06:08]
12-the hlaf that ends here [04:48]
13-this is for the days that i fear [05:36]
14-this is my last breat [04:16]
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72:59 min